Flying Fish
by Second
Summary: One Last God Kubera Fanfic. Maruna/Shakuntala. "But Maruna," she protested, "there are fish that can fly and birds that love the sea."


Flying Fish takes place after Kubera has fulfills her destiny, in a time when Gandharva's powers are restored and an ocean has been created for his tribe. Assuming that the Kubera universe has not been destroyed, that is. Since Rakshasa talk telepathically, I'm going to put their speech in single quotation marks. Also, Yuga is not a spelling error; it is the likely real name of Yuta that his siblings know him as but if Currygom reveals something else I will come back and change it.

This is Maruna/Shakuntala. I know, I know, totally not a Canon couple. I absolutely adore them though and Maruna really needs some love, being the lone wolf that he is. :'} And who can get tired of daddylove from Gandharva?

Disclaimer: One Last God: Kubera, Maruna, Shakuntala and Gandharva belong to the wonderful Currygom. Yours truly cannot even begin to compare.

-SCND-

** Flying Fish**

Two figures, one red, one green, laid in a field of pink flowers stretching from the plage of Gandharva's sparkling ocean to the curving valley of a succulent hill. The green gal hummed as she placed a wreath around her companion, accidentally catching it on one of his fluffy ears.

Maruna glanced up before shaking his entire head, feathers ruffling all over as Shakuntala filled the air with merry laughter.

She smoothed his down and his hair with her fingers, smiling and whispering in that telepathic Rakshasa language, 'I wish I could make one for you every day.'

'The flowers will all die out, won't they?'

Shakuntala looked sadly into the sky and the petals that circled in the wind, knowing that they will eventually wither and crumble away. It was almost like having Insight and the lament that came with knowing the sad fate of a beloved Sura.

'Yeah,' she sighed, 'but I will make more for you next summer.'

Maruna's response was intercepted by a loud blaring of a conch. Following, eight playful porpoises coupled in pairs leaped out from waters and clicked their tongues at Garuda's son and Gandharva's daughter.

'Gandharva's calling you,' Maruna stated, staring off into the distance.

Shakuntala smiled. 'No he isn't. He just doesn't want the likes of you around me.'

He sidestepped her teasing prodding and flared his back feathers, temporarily reasserting the dominance he formerly gained as King of the Garuda tribe. Though the birds in the skies seemed to bow their heads in his presence, Shakuntala only laughed and ran forward to greet him.

'Maruna, careful!' she giggled, pressing the back of her hand gently against her lips. 'You'll wreck the flowers.'

He fingered one of the petals and lifted the wreath halfway above his neck. 'It's okay,' he told her, eyeing it critically. 'You'll make one for me again tomorrow.'

'Not if you destroy them all.'

'But you love me,' he protested, wide, innocent red eyes staring into hers, 'more than your flowers, don't you?'

Shakuntala clamped her lips together and narrowed her eyes at him, letting out a 'mmm_…_' of contemplation.

'Right?' repeated Maruna, reaching out for his green gal.

His arms circled her figure, fingers laced together behind her back. At first, she was reluctant to return his affections with Gandharva so obviously spying on them but with a gentle tug he brought her into his lean chest and she had no choice but to return his embrace. Maruna set his chin on top of Shakuntala's head, something he loved to do because her ears would always jump abashedly and tickle his neck. Rosy-cheeked, Shakuntala found the feathery wings on his back and stroked them, knowing that this was as much his undoing as that was hers.

'I don't understand how someone can be so hard and soft at the same time.' Though Shakuntala could only speak telepathically, her voice was meek and muffled as it would have sounded had she actual vocal chords.

'It's kind of like how you reached the third stage long before I did. It just is.'

'Mmm,' she mumbled, inhaling his sweet, intoxicating scent. He smelled like flowers, the very same flowers she placed around his neck. Her favourite flowers.

Maruna stared off into the ocean behind his green gal, somehow wary that Gandharva could turn the entire place into a frozen wasteland at any given moment. The ocean was silent with the pretense of serenity but secretly its waves lapsed closer each time.

'I have a will.'

Shakuntala erupted into laughter. 'Really?' She was all curiosity.

He nodded. 'I made one when father first put me under Gandharva's tutelage. I honestly thought that he was going to kill me because you liked me so much.'

Her ears perked again, this time in amusement.

Maruna tightened his hold on her as he continued, 'I didn't have much with me then. My wings and plumage were for Yuga. My eyes and teeth I wanted to give Kalavinka. My mother was entitled to whatever scraps left of me because I would join her in whichever place Sura go after we die.'

'And me, Maruna?' she pouted.

'You what?,' he teased, grinning cheekily. 'You get nothing. You're hypothetically responsible for my death.'

'Nice way to impress a lady.'

'I don't need to impress you. You were already enamoured with me the first time I wore one of your flower wreaths."

She exhaled a soft sigh of defeat into the nook of his neck. 'Mmm, okay. But I only did it because you were such a small, fluffy red-white thing and I thought pink would compliment you.'

'Pink and green make a better combination,' he told her, sliding his hands up her back to loop his necklace straight off his head and onto hers.

Shakuntala parted from the embrace for a second. She lifted her head off his neck and slid her hands back to finger the silky petals. Maruna silently stared, taking in the complete beauty of this female Rakshasa. So dazed was he that for a fleeting moment he actually forgot that Shakuntala was Gandharva's daughter.

Then her eyes found his. 'Maruna, let's have a child.'

It almost felt like Gandharva splashed him with the icy cold water from his canteen. Maruna stood there, frozen in incredulity.

His girlfriend looked very serious.

Placing two hands on her shoulders, the shaken Rakshasa somehow managed, 'Shakuntala... Are you _trying _to kill me?'

Her eyebrows curved inwards and her lips immediately arched down. 'Why not?'

'Gandharva will kill me.'

'Daddy won't hurt you! He raised you like his own son and he's too close with Garuda to do that!'

Maruna shook his head fervently. 'It's Gandharva.'

She stilled his protests by cupping his cheek. It wasn't fair. When those liquid emerald eyes stared at him so sweetly, Maruna could never do anything but stop and listen.

'Daddy knows that if he hurts you, I'll be very sad.'

Conflicted, Maruna bit his lip and looked earthwards. 'I respect Gandharva too much to do this.'

'Nonsense!' it was the sharpest tone he'd ever heard coming from Shakuntala's mouth. 'Gandharva's always known that I would grow up and have children. I know he feels safer leaving me with you than the other Rakshasa in our clan.'

Maruna stared harder in silence, only daring to steal a glance at his beloved's face after the loss of her touch.

Watery-eyed and trembling, Shakuntala was sniffling. She rubbed at her eyes with balled up fists. 'It's because I'm a fish, isn't it? You just want to eat me.'

Flustered and dumbfounded, he arched his back over her shrinking figure, opening and clamping his mouth several times but unable to form a coherent sentence. The fact that Gandharva was probably watching and seething somewhere close by did not help matters at all.

'I—uh—t-that's not it.'

She peered up at him through rainbow tinted tears.

Maruna sighed with dread, wondering how he could explain this as painlessly and sensitively as possible. 'A bird_…_' he contemplated, staring up into the sky, 'and a fish_…'_

'What's wrong with that?'

'They're just not_… _compatible.'

'How so?' She tilted her head to the side, blinking curiously.

'Well,' began Maruna, actually quite stumped by her question, 'I live in the sky and you live in the ocean. Our territories don't overlap so if there's a crossbreed I have no idea what's going to happen to it.'

'But Maruna,' protested Shakuntala, 'there are fish that can fly and birds that love the sea.'

'We'll be having an Upani,' he sighed. 'Knowing me, it'll probably inherit my slow developing skills and take at least several hundred years to develop. There's always the risk of the Asura and Ananta clans as well as some advanced magicians.'

'Mm mm.' Shakuntala shook her head. 'Not if you get daddy to love it as much as he loves me.'

It was hard to picture Gandharva loving anything that had a part of Maruna in it. The Nastika's life mission had been to make him suffer.

'Shakuntala,' he groaned, resisting the urge to run his hands through his hair. 'It was hard enough for me to ask you out.'

'Exactly,' she exclaimed, putting a finger to his lips. 'That's why _I'm_ the one who's asking this time. I love you, Maruna. Daddy's not going to change anything. He _knows_ that he can't change anything so for once just listen to what I say, okay? We'll save the Transcendency for later, when you and Gandharva find a deserted planet. Make sure you don't come back to me too battered."

Maruna didn't know whether to feel insulted or hopeless. It physically hurt for him to concede but he loved Shakuntala too much to deny her something she fought so passionately for. 'Okay_… _But please come with me to speak to Gandharva. I don't want this to be a repeat of that time when he caught you flying on my back.'

'Wah!' she exclaimed with sparkling eyes. Shakuntala clasped his hands so excitedly Maruna almost felt happy for waiving. 'Are you going to tell Kalavinka? And Yuga? And Kubera? Maruna, I love you!'

She threw herself into his arms and he enveloped her out of instinct, petting her hair and swishy fins.

In the distance, there was a great big splash and the surging of a huge tidal wave. Maruna was sure that he'd met his sweet ending then and there in Shakuntala's arms when he saw Gandharva regally erect atop the wave. The green haired man shot him a wary and distasteful stare. His canteen popped open and Maruna swore that all his feathers were standing on end. Gandharva mockingly tossed the canteen's contents his way, scaring the bird frightfully until he realized nothing but seawater flew out.

The porpoises clicked again, signifying the beginning of a marvelous marine show featuring hundreds of flying fish and circling seagulls. Their cries unified, much to Gandharva's dismay and annoyance.

'Hi daddy,' giggled Shakuntala.

Maruna's claw like hand found its way to his sweating forehead. Gandharva raised one green eyebrow at him. He was suddenly reminded of a time when the king offered him a curry mushroom, the mushroom that lead them to Kubera Leez who in turn led them to the missing Shakuntala.

Maruna bowed his head.

_Forgive me, your highness_, he thought inwardly, Shakuntala held tightly in his arms. _Gandharva, I am so_ _so__ sorry._

___… _Thank you.

-SCND-

And that is the end of my overbearing Daddy Gandharva fic. :'D Thank you for reading and making it to the end with me. I had so much fun writing this.

Please, please, please send me a review. Your feedback is my fuel.

-SCND


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